Cyrus and Pervin Todiwala founded Zest Quest Asia to inspire students across the UK to consider Asian cookery as a future career and to help stem the shortage of labour that threatens the £4Bn Asian food industry.

Winning students will have the chance to spend time in the Po Valley in Northern Italy and visit the city of Milan. Student chefs will also have the opportunity to learn about Tilda’s Arborio rice and have a tour of the rice mill. Past winners have enjoyed trips to Mumbai, Bangkok, Tokyo, Osaka and Hanoi.

Annette Coggins, head of foodservice at Tilda UK, said: “For 2020, we wanted to really reward the student chefs who discover the culinary possibilities of Tilda rice and work hard to take their Asian cooking to the next level.

“We are very excited to reveal this new prize for Zest Quest Asia and the opportunity to take one lucky college on a once in lifetime gastro tour of Italy. I can’t wait for February it’s going to be a thrilling cook off!”

To date, five colleges and universities have been crowned Zest Quest Asia champions, including Westminster Kingsway College, Farnborough College, Milton Keynes College, University College Birmingham, and current champions University of West London, winners of the competition for two consecutive years.

The deadline for catering colleges to enter Zest Quest Asia is 25 October 2019. The shortlist will be revealed in early December with the cook off and gala dinner taking place on 7 February 2020 at the Hilton London Heathrow Airport Terminal Five. For more information, visit: www.zestquestasia.com.